Dr Diana Powell SFHEA

Personal Statement

I am passionate about creativity, culture, education and mental health. Having taught in three countries, I am deeply interested in building skills that will help children and young people think creatively and be resilient. Through UK Unplugged, I engage volunteers, mostly university students or professionals, from different cultures and backgrounds to share their knowledge with their community. We have worked with the LASER Society, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Management School and the School of the Arts as well as countless volunteers. Our funders include the Royal Society of Chemistry, British Science Week and Merseyside Community Foundation among others.

I support volunteers to design boxes locally and sustainably. Each box includes games, crafts, foods and physical activities to promote learning through play and help families create, explore and unplug from tech together. We have been successful in reaching underserved low income and SEND communities.

I also design internships and programmes to give students creative work experience to differentiate them from other applicants at job interview. In 2023-4, I had 11 interns from SOTA and 3 from LJMU in addition to volunteers from Architecture, Aerospace and Electrics and Electrical Engineering.

If you're looking to reach the community in a innovative and collaborative way, please get in touch.

Winner of Organisation of the Year 2023 Liverpool John Moores University Student Union Awards.